It has been a *very* long time since I’ve written up a recipe, but I received a number of requests on Instagram when I made these last week, so thought I’d write this one up. The ‘Eat-Your-Feelings’ brownies are fantastic for these rainy, slightly-demoralising, never-ending pandemic Lockdown days (can you tell Lockdown 3.0 has felt LONG?!) or days when you just want to eat lots of chocolate. They’re also fun to make with the children – who love adding the extra bits at the end.
The base for these brownies is vegan, but because I used non-vegan marshmallows, I’ve used the term ‘dairy free’ instead. Basically, they’re ‘bung-it-all-in’ brownies so it’s a case of seeing what’s in your store cupboard and bunging it into the mix at the end (I’m very technical with these things).
The Recipe (makes 9, depending on how big you like your brownies!)
The Ingredients
250g dairy free chocolate (chopped into small pieces, or I use the Aldi dark chocolate drops which are df and melt quickly)
170g caster sugar
80g vegan butter (Flora Original is great)
190g self-raising flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
240ml plant-based milk (oat works well)
A pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Extras to add into the mixture. For this batch I used Oreos, vegan chocolate hazelnut spread, mini marshmallows and chocolate drops. Peanut butter also works really well with Oreos.
The Method
1. Set oven to 180°c (fan oven). 200°c (non-fan). And grease and line a square tin (approx 20cm).
2. Melt the butter and 200g of the chocolate together in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Gently stir until combined. Remove bowl from heat.
3. Sift the flour and cocoa together in a mixing bowl.
4. Add the salt, milk, vanilla extract, melted chocolate and sugar together until fully combined.
5. Stir in the remaining 50g of chocolate (or leave it to add to the top of your mixture once it’s in the tin).
6. Pour mixture into the prepared square tin and get to work adding all of the remaining ingredients. I tend to swirl the spread into the mixture, break the Oreos in half and then dot the marshmallows around so they toast as the brownie mix bakes.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes. The brownies will continue to bake in the tin when you take them out of the oven, so if they still look a bit gooey – don’t worry.
8. Remove from oven, leave to cool in the tin for another 20 minutes, and then lift them out onto a cooling rack.
They are absolutely delicious with vanilla ice cream (I love the Swedish Glace vegan vanilla) and taste even better the next day!
Let me know how you get on!
